Stollwerck goes into 2004 with a clear focus

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Cologne, Frankfurt/Main, 1 February 2004 – Stollwerck AG,
headquartered in Cologne and a sub-sidiary of Barry Callebaut, the
world's largest manufac-turer of chocolate products, is presenting
itself at this year's ISM, the International Sweets and Biscuits
Trade Fair from 1 to 4 February 2004, with a clearly focused
business strategy. Within this framework Richard Crux, the chief
executive officer of Stollwerck, and his team have initiated an
extensive campaign to bundle brands and streamline the product
range.

"We have to concentrate on the profitable brands and products
with the potential for growth and innovation. Nowadays it is simply
no longer possible to support some ten mono-brands at the same time
and all to the same extent in terms of marke-ting," explained
Richard Crux just before the ISM 2004 got underway. "It is better
to do things properly, bundling strengths and resources so as to
develop and tap further potential for synergies," said Crux. This
applies in particular to Stollwerck with a view to the
international expansion of consumer brand business – and above
all towards Eastern Europe.

Sarotti will become the single umbrella
brandStollwerck will from now on concentrate on
Sarotti as the central leading umbrella brand. Crux says of this:
"Sarotti offers the best prerequisites within the company's own
brand portfolio for international expansion. Moreover the brand
with the longest tradition has a level of awareness of 99 per cent,
making it one of the most popular and recognisable food brands in
Germany."

Alpia will be retained as a family brand in the
attractively-priced entry-level segment. Gubor will continue to
function as the company's top premium brand.

At the trade fair Stollwerck is presenting numerous innovations
and product launches for Sarotti – in part with recipes which
have not yet been seen on European shelves in this form. Examples
of this are the new truffles from "Tiamo Edition" based on Italian
recipes, and the springtime seasonal varia-tions using plain
chocolate in creamily fruity combinations such as "Panna Cotta à
la Himbeer" as part of the Sarotti Nostalgia Edition No. 6.

Chocolate bars to move into the Top 3"We
have set ourselves an ambitious target: Sarotti is to see strong
growth in 2004, and join the ranks of the Top 3 in chocolate bars
by the end of the year." The chances of achie-ving this goal are
good: In the first ten months of 2003 the Sarotti premium line "No.
1" saw growth of an impressive nine per cent in terms of value.
This year Sarotti "No. 1" is to be re-structured and enriched with
new, high-quality varieties rich in cocoa based on the topic
"Origin Chocolate".

Here Stollwerck profits from the competence of its parent
company: Barry Callebaut is the only cocoa processing and chocolate
manufacturing company in the world able to cover the vertical
value-added chain in full, from the cocoa bean to the product on
the shelf.

Sarotti allows for a diversified product
range
There is also innovation potential for Sarotti according to the
latest findings from market research: Thus the Sarotti brand allows
for diversification with new products, and also in the categories
marzipan, bars and candies for example.

On the transfer of the truffle products "Tiamo" from Sprengel to
the umbrella brand Sarotti says Crux: "Within the framework of the
brand focus we are gradually reducing the scope of the range with
which Sprengel has been represented on the mar-ket to date."

Alongside its branded goods business, the company produces
own-brand products for numerous trading companies – the second
operational pillar at Stollwerck. Here the Cologne-based company is
the market leader, and already develops exclusive, individualised
trade brand and product concepts for customers for all the various
trade channels.

Stollwerck intends to be problem-solver for trade
partnersIn the case of individualised customer
solutions Stollwerck CEO Crux sees particular growth potential with
the major and international trading groups above all. Stollwerck
intends to accompany their expansion to a greater degree in the
coming years.

"As a group of companies we have more competence and know-how
than virtually every other company in the develop-ment and
production of high-quality cocoa, chocolate and marzipan products
on behalf of our customers, with these products fulfilling current
trends and meeting market demands. In the coming years we intend to
consolidate our position as the leading problem-solver for our
trade partners," is how Crux describes the company's goal.

Focus on individual concepts for customers
In this respect Stollwerck is also consistently developing its
category management program, creating innovative measures and
mechanisms for joint campaigns on the shelf and sales areas so as
to bring about an increase in sales: Thus the Stollwerck trade
marketing team is creating individualised co-branded competitions,
attractive give-aways and intelligent bundled offerings in
co-operation with trade customers. Custo-mised coupon campaigns and
display concepts for secondary placements, all geared to the
specific channels, round off the range of services.

Stollwerck will probably be undergoing re-structuring through to
the late summer of 2004. In this respect the headquarters in
Cologne are to become the core of the European business with
consumer products. The cost-reduction program initiated in 2002
will also have to be continued in the current year. "We are the
market leader in the trade brand sector. We intend to develop our
position in the branded goods business by a con-siderable degree.
In both areas we are orienting ourselves towards the possibilities
for international expansion. And so Stollwerck also has to become
the cost leader in the industry," says Richard Crux.

About Stollwerck:

Stollwerck AG, headquartered in Cologne, is a leading
manu-facturer of chocolate products such as chocolate bars,
choco-lates and truffles, as well as refreshment sticks. The
company boasts a tradition going back 150 years, with extensive
compe-tence and experience in the use of cocoa and chocolate raw
materials and ingredients. Stollwerck produces at a number of
sites, primarily in Germany, and has a diversified brand
port-folio. The leading umbrella brand of the group is Sarotti,
which, with a level of awareness of 99 per cent (Source:
NFO-Infra-test, 2003), ranks among the best-known and most popular
brands in Germany.